03-01-2016, 03:36 AM
If you want to see the result of an isolationist economy, just have a look at North Korea or Cuba to see what happens when a country chooses to (or is forced to) do everything on their own with no trading partners. Free trade agreements are good for the economy, that is a fact. Here in Canada we're not exactly thrilled about NAFTA either. NAFTA stipulates that we have to provide the USA with our oil even before we use it for our own needs. Does that sound fair to you? Now, the USA seems to have recently discovered its own oil source with fracking and stuff, so I can see you guys balking at NAFTA now. But really IMO our two countries need to cooperate and continue trading for our mutual benefit. Otherwise we are just going to ship all our goods to Europe and Asia.
I can totally understand your guys frustration with the jobs going overseas. I just don't think tariffs are the answer. There has to be a better solution. This is going to require some creative thinking because it is a big problem. We are having similar issues here in Canada. It's cheaper to make things in Mexico and other countries so that's where all the jobs are going. Perhaps instead of tariffs the government can stipulate that in order for a company to sell its products in the USA, a certain percentage of the workforce has to work in the US. Something like that. Not a tariff. That's just going to create chaos.
I can totally understand your guys frustration with the jobs going overseas. I just don't think tariffs are the answer. There has to be a better solution. This is going to require some creative thinking because it is a big problem. We are having similar issues here in Canada. It's cheaper to make things in Mexico and other countries so that's where all the jobs are going. Perhaps instead of tariffs the government can stipulate that in order for a company to sell its products in the USA, a certain percentage of the workforce has to work in the US. Something like that. Not a tariff. That's just going to create chaos.